Fight in front of the City Hall on 28 July 1830
Date: 1833
Materials and technics: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: H. 458 x w. 500 cm
Inscriptions : Signed and dated lower left: "Vor Schnetz 1833"
Inventory number: PPP3767
Acquisition details: Commissioned from the artist, 1833
Room: 7
Schnetz was a former pupil of David, who took part in the main decorative projects in Paris during the reign of King Louis-Philippe. He was one of the painters called on to commemorate the great Parisian revolutions to adorn the walls of the former Throne Room in the City Hall.
Schnetz illustrated the second day of the July Revolution of 1830. In reaction to the oppressive orders signed by Charles X, the insurgent crowd erected barricades and then took possession of the City Hall. Like Liberty Leading the People by Delacroix, the scene is depicted on a barricade. The wounded child brandishing the tricolour flag prefigures Victor Hugo’s Gavroche. This painting was not hung during the July Monarchy. It was placed in external storerooms, and thus escaped the fire at the City Hall in 1971.
M. A. P.
The work was restored in 2015 through the sponsorship of the Carré Rive Gauche endowment fund.
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